If the situation were reversed and an Israeli family had been fire-bombed the "forces of law and order", police, IDF, Shin Bet, would have already rampaged through the nearest Palestinian villages breaking down doors, trashing houses, arresting dozens of men and boys and probably shooting a few just for good measure.

Haaretz has a report on protests against the gay pride parade stabbings and the arson attack. Israeli President Rivlin had this to say:-

"Citizens of Israel, a Jewish and democratic Israel, democratic and Jewish Israel, needs a wake-up call today," Rivlin said. "The Israel of the Declaration of Independence, the Israel of the vision of the Prophets, of compassion and mercy, today needs a wake-up call. We will not be zealots. We will not be bullies. We will not become a state of anarchy."

Cspan is not available to me down here in New Zealand so I am reliant on the Guardian article for Kerry's speech to the Foreign Relations Committee and I was deeply unimpressed. He rightly said that the cancellation of the US signature on the agreement by an overwhelming "no" vote in Congress would hamper the US's ability to make agreements with other nations in future. Frankly I think that all the screeching and wailing has already done that damage regardless of the outcome of the Congressional vote.
Two of his remarks I found particularly offensive-:
1. Without the US the "multilateral sanctions regime will fall apart". The sanctions are supposed to be lifted in return for Iran honouring it's commitments. I would hope that if the US signature on the agreement is cancelled by Congress that the other six signatories (including Iran) proceed to implement the agreement. Does this mean that the fake 'intelligence' of Iran's 'cheating' is already being prepared?
2. Kerry maintained the lie about Iran's nuclear programme being aimed at the production of nuclear weapons.

Absolutely right MDM. The deal is signed and the essential Security Council Resolution has been passed so with or without the US normal relations between Iran and the rest of the world will be resumed. In some ways I hope that these clowns get their veto proof "No" vote in Congress as it will (1) prevent Iran from getting tangled up financially/commercially with the US and (2) start loosening the bonds of the "Western Alliance".

The Palestinians are a demographic reality that neither the 19th centuary Zionists nor the 20th centuary United Nations took into account when seeking to establish a permanent Jewish state. Israel appears to regard it's self as like the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand which are permanent colonial states. Unfortunately Israel resembles French Indochina or Algeria, Dutch Indonesia or British India and numerous African states which have returned to the control of their indigenous peoples.

Thank you for posting that article - I have saved it for future reference. It has always been a feeling I had that Israel reacts to periods of calm by killing one or more Palestinians but I don't have the time or energy to do the research.

There is a significant difference between the Crimean situation and that of the Palestinian Territories - Crimea was annexed to Russia in 1783 and remained sovereign Russian territory until 1954 when Khruschev (ethnic Ukrainian) made it part of Ukraine. This made no difference to Crimea (or Ukraine) until the breakup of the USSR when Crimea became and autonomous region in a newly independent Ukraine. Thus Russia has an historically recent claim on Crimea, Israel has no such claim on the occupied Palestinian Territories which have never been a recognised part of the State of Israel.

Crimea was part of the Russian SSR until 1954 when the ethnic Ukrainian, Khruschev, moved it into the Ukrainian SSR. It didn't matter at the time as everyone was part of the USSR but it did matter when the USSR fell apart.

"Netanyahu lacks the political ability to forge a new, centrist governing coalition to back up Kerry’s ideas"

Irrelevant. No possible government of Israel, right, centre or far to the left, has the slightest intention of giving up territory already grabbed in the West Bank or the control of Palestinians that would be necessary for a just and legal two state solution unless forced by more powerful political entities. At the moment there is no will on the part of the world powers to force Israel to comply but the mood is, slowly, changing.

“For 2000 years the city passed from hand to hand,” continued Amos, cutting out 2000 years of history from the time of King David until 1948.

The time of King David (ca. 1010 - 970 BCE according to the Jewish Virtual Library) was just over 2900 years before 1948 not 2000. Jerusalem, like other cities in the region, passed from hand to hand both before and after the time of David.

According to the western security agencies (including Mossad) Iran does NOT have a nuclear weapons programme. As signatories to the NNPT they have the right to pursue all aspects of nuclear technology other than weapons production. They also have good reasons for wishing to be able to enrich their own uranium for energy and medical isotope production - to wit they cannot trust countries such as the US not to impose sanctions on them at a whim.

Unfortunately I agree Joe. The evangelicals have taken up passionate Zionism - my local happy clappy church is decorated with Israeli flags and pictures of menorah. Most of the rest of the society do not know or care much about the I/P issue but centuries of Christianity have left a familiarity with the Jewish scriptural claims to choseness and land rights. Combined with a fear of radical Islam and the feeling that Jews are more like "us" than the Palestinians are this familiarity means that John & Jane are more likely to see these maps as representations of reality Than the joke they are.

I would dearly like Phil's assessment to be right but I really think you have a better handle on the situation Joe. Although Assad has begun handing over information to the UN there are already accusations of lying and sending chemical weapons to Iraq. Then there is the fact that collecting and destroying the weapons is not going to be simple in the middle of a civil war. I'm about 90% certain that an excuse will be found to bomb Syria by the end of the year.

"... that's why we get so many Nobel Prizes..."
Are you sure about that? Israel is listed as the country of 9.5 Nobel Prizewinners beginning in 1966 with S. Y. Agnon's prize for literature. The .5 is Daniel Kahneman (economics) born in Israel but now holding joint Israeli/US citizenship. Three of those prizes were for peace held jointly with arabs (Begin/Sadat, Rabin & Peres/Arafat) which are situational rather than a result of individual achievement.
Switzerland is similar in population and development to Israel and, since 1966, Swiss nationals have received 7 Nobel Prizes equal to Israel's prizes for individual achievement. There is a long list of Jewish Nobel winners available on the internet which appears to suggest that their Jewishness rather than, for instance, educational or research opportunities or the input, in many cases, of a non-Jewish parent.

"The U.S. did not abandon the Jews, because we did not abandon Europe. And we could have. Hitler never attacked our homeland, like the Japanese did. One of the policy options that have strong support was to let the Europeans stew in their own juices. Let Hitler declare war on us all he wants; as log as he does not attack us, he can declare the moon is made of green cheese."

I cannot agree with your statement. Hitler declared war on the US on 11th December 1941 in support of his ally Japan. The US was neutral until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December, so in a sense the US had abandoned Europe between then and the 3rd September 1939 declaration of war by the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand, who were joined on 10th September by Canada. The end of the Battle of Crete in May 1941 saw all of Europe, apart from the UK, either allied with or occupied by Germany. German support for Italy in North Africa threatened the British hold on the Suez Canal and it is doubtful that Britain could have withstood the planned 1941 invasion by Germany if Hitler had not allowed his hatred of Communists, Slavs and Stalin to lead to breaking the mutual non-aggression pact. 20 million+ dead Soviet citizens later the Germans finally lost that battle, having already lost the initative in the Middle East.
If Hitler hadn't blown it the Axis powers would most likely have won and the US mainland my well have suffered attack by Germany, Japan or both.

I like how many people seem to think that the ICC is actually able to solve the problem. The ICC can investigate and issue indictments but lacks any ability to arrest the indictees. There is a ICC warrant for the arrest of Sudanese president Al Bashier but he managed to attend a conference in ICC member state Chad earlier this year and return home unmolested.
If Palestine did join the ICC and get indictments against some powerful Israelis it would be somewhat embarrassing to Israel and its supporters but no more than that, and it seems that Israel, the US and their hangers-on are not easily embarrassed.

Kosher/halal slaughter is no more (or less) humane than the methods used in normal slaughterhouses where animals are killed for human consumption. None of the animal killers that I know personally be they hunters, farmers or butchers have any interest in torturing the animals that they kill. Unlike many of my compatriots I have no objection to halal slaughter. (Few New Zealanders are aware that kosher slaughter is the same as halal, only the words and direction to face are different. The general objection is to the ritual nature of the killing.)
Hunting and the products of hunting are forbidden to Jews? Well no - fish anyone?

I'm afraid I see the Jewish dietary laws relating to species, slaughter method etc relating to to control of the population by religious authorities rather than health or animal welfare. The requirement for priestly or rabinic supervision of food types and sources prevents ordinary people from providing food for themselves or their famillies.

Thank you Hostage for this interesting information. I do appreciate this site and its informed authors and commentators - I wouldn't even try to locate the information provided by links in articles and comments on my own.

Also thank you to HarryLaw for the link to Talknic's site - I have long been impressed by his/her comments in this and other fora.

OT I know but have you seen this article in Ha'aretz link to haaretz.com ?
Another example of petty oppression of Palestinians by Israel, apparently just because they can.

Much of the reporting of this incident and the comments on those reports illustrates a desire for revenge for the injuries suffered by the woman and her children. It is convenient to blame Palestinian stone throwers who may or, more likely, not have been present. Unfortunately the primary responsibility for the accident lies with the woman driving the car who was either not paying attention or travelling too close to. the truck and thus failed to stop before hitting it.

Yes, I was facinated by the "boulder" as well alyhough in my experience exaggerating the size and danger of Palestinian missiles (i.e stones) is a normal hasbara tactic. Wikipedia defines boulder as a rock no less than 256cm (10 inches) in diameter. Palestinian children must be generally endowed with the strength of Samson to be able to use such weapons.

The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions and as far as I can see many liberals all over the west are still hard at work building that road towards intervention in Syria right now. R2P has been, is now and ever mopre shall be the liberal excuse for intervention in Iraq, Libya, Mali, Syria and in future in Iran.

There are two big lies from which all the other lies, evasions and condition flow.

1st the 19th centuary Zionist founding lie "A land without people for a people without a land".

2nd the 1948 lie "The Jews accepted the partition but the nasty Arabs told the Palestinians to get out of the way while their armies annahilated the Jews'.

All of the "Arab" populations under Ottoman rule wanted independence, which the British and French promised in return for assistance during WW1 and later access to oil and protection for the Suez Canal. The establishment of British or French Mandates after the war were a direct renunciation of that promise. In the meantime certain promises had also been made to the Zionists to support a national home for the Jews in Palestine. After WW2, when a war-weary and financially strapped Britain wanted to divest from its colonies, it was unable to keep the promises made to both Palestinians and Jews. The UN partition plan to create separate Arab and Jewish states was made to spare the blushes of the powerful permanent members of the security council rather than to protect the rights of either the Palestinians or the brualized European Jewish refugees. The Zionists had a plan to expel Palestinians and seize additional territory and their plan worked! Having grabbed maximum land with minimum Palestinians Ben Gurion el al could smile sweetly, with their fingers crossed behind their backs, and say "We accept the partition (for now, we will get the rest later when we have the numbers and the weapons)."

Nice paraphrasing there Denis but of course Inskeep didn't say that last bit as 'everybody' knows Palestinians do not exist and nonexistent people cannot lose anything. I have to assume that NPR feels that they can afford to ignore the tone of most of the commentators because they have been reading the same poll as Ha'aretz has under the headline "On the eve of Obama visit, US public's support for Israel reaches all time high" link to haaretz.com

Thanks Vicki I did. Here are the final 2 paragraphs of Yossi Sarid's article in Ha'aretz today on the same subject.

A black man named Hussein showed up at the terminal and declared that he is a president, but our gatekeepers are experienced and have seen more than a few imposters in their time. Every African work migrant and infiltrator tells them stories, and the policy of the outgoing interior minister is still in force.

After a brief interview it was determined that the individual had no idea why he was here or who was meeting him. If that were not enough, he refused to hand over a suspicious-looking black briefcase for inspection. He held onto it with all his might, as though the future of the world depended on it. So we had no choice; we called in the sapper robot, and that's what happened.

Israeli law does not provide for absentee ballots and in general, voting takes place only on Israeli soil. Exceptions are made for Israeli citizens serving abroad on official business who can vote in 96 Israeli embassies and consulates or on Israeli ships.link to mfa.gov.il

So Israel;i citizens outside of Israel cannot vote unless they are on official business or living in the occupied territories.

Agreed Ramzi. From the very beginning of the Zionist project its architects have sought, and found, powerful backers among the gentile nations. Israel depends, for its existence, on the support of the US, in particular, and other western nations. Should the kind of anti-semitism arise which necessitates Jews to flee their homes in New York, London, Paris or Sydney Israel will become a prison camp and killing field for Jews as the Palestinians and surrounding nations take revenge for Israeli arrogance.

Urges that, if the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in self-defense, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.

If the Government of Israel were to be genuinely compelled to take military action in self defense there is no doubt that the US and a number of other countries would provide diplomatic, military and economic support so the resolution is redundant. What the resolution actually says is "If Israel commits the ultimate war crime by attacking another country (Iran) the US will have already agreed to be fully complicit in said crime."

"Jews,like all peoples, have every right to defend themselves against an enemy".

OK I can agree with that, but this Amalek/Haman thing is scary to me as a gentile. Netanyahu has a tendency to toss 'Amalek' around quite often and fairly randomly, as far as I am concerned. I do see a logical problem here as well -m Jews are clearly a genocidal enemy of the Amalekites who also have 'right to defend themselves'.

" (Keep in mind he is banned from entry by Britain because of racist incitement. Why not the U.S. as well?) "

I have been most firmly informed on other threads on a number of websites that this is because the US, unlike other countries, is FREE. I don't know how this freedom fits with trying to deny entry to a Palestinian Oscar nominee - but the being neither American or Jewish I'm probably not terribly clever.

On a more serious note the 'replacement theory' of political, religous and cultural change has lost a lot of its authority in recent years. Hebrew scripture is the first written enunciation of this theory (that I know of anyway) i.e. the Israelites completely replaced the Caananites, Hivites, Hittites and all the other ...ites. Modern archaeology (not conducted by Jewish or Christian Zionists) suggests that the Israelites were a Caananite tribe, or collection of tribes. Modern Palestinian 'Arabs' are almost certainly the decendants of the earliest humans to settle in the area plus all the other peoples that have conquered or traded or settled in the area. When the Arabian armies conquered the area a few more Arabian bloodlines were added to the mix, many Christian Palestinians converted to Islam just as many Jewish Palestinians converted to Christianity when that became the official religion of Rome. Arabic also largely replaced Aramaic, Greek, Latin as the dominant language.
While it is perfectly true that Judaism has been practiced continuosly in the area since its invention it is not true to claim that all modern Jews have their ancestral roots there. A hint of ancient Caanan sure - religions, especially minority religions, do not spread by magic, but most of the worlds Jews are likely to share the bloodlines of the societies in which their more recent ancestors lived.

There are also physical reasons for dominance in some sports. Ancestral physical environment influenced the lifestyle and hence genetic selection of those whose physical atributes were most successful. An example, from the other hemishere, is the preponderance of Polynesians and part Polynesians in rugby in rugby. Srange as it may seem Polynesians are heavily cold adapted because to colonise scatted islands they had to sail and it is always cold at night on the sea so without fur-bearing mammal skins for clothing people with lots of fast-twitch muscle fibres for effective shivering survived best.

"Only two weeks ago, on February 6, justices Asher Grunis, Hanan Melcer and Noam Sohlberg turned down a petition by four human rights groups demanding the annulment of a 2003 law letting the police forgo the filming or audiotaping of security suspects' interrogations. The organizations also asked the court to require the Shin Bet to visually document the questioning of suspects. The justices said that because the law was now under scrutiny, “the time has not yet come to examine the petitioners’ arguments themselves.” "

The above quote is from an article in Ha'retz today. Obviously no recordings are made so there is no evidence of the guilt of "the most moral security force in the world".link to haaretz.com

Maybe it wasn't a mistake. A great number of Israeli actions recently seem to be designed to provoke a new violent Palestinian intifada. The current round of protests, especially erecting tents on their own lands, and the nominations of 5 Broken Cameras & Gatekeepers for the Oscars have been horribly embarassing for Israel.

As I see it the purpose of the BDS movement is to
1) draw attention, both inside Israel and in the wider world, to Israel;i abuses of Palestinians
2) as the boycotts (hopefully) take hold among the public start to affect the economics of companies selling Israeli products or undertaking contracts in Israeli and especially the occuipied territories, which will then
3) (again hopefully) lead to affected companies putting pressure on their home countries' governments to stop their support of Israel's behaviour.

When (if) the movement gains sufficient support it will adversly affect alll Israelis, regardless of their political opnions, and Palestinians as well. In that sense BDS is something of a blunt instrument but it is still preferable IMOH to another violent uprising by Palestinians which have generally tended to elicit sympathy for Israelis.

It is unimaginable that any senior politician in Australia would speak like Goff: "We’re not prepared to see friendly countries act in that sort of criminal way against us."
Sadly I am no longer certain that senior politicians in New Zealand would speak this way now, unless the story was out in the public domain where the voters could put pressure on them. Don't forget that this is the same Phil Goff who chaired the international commitee looking into the Marvi Marmara incident, which concluded that Israel was justified in its actions.

"Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" seems to apply to Israel at the moment. The Zionist are either suffering from "we are untouchable" hubris or they can see that the end is coming and have decided that they may as well be hung as sheep rather than lambs.

The lack of attention to Palestinians by Amnesty International and other humanitarian agencies leads to a lack of attention from the international media. Only by reading alternative sites such as Mondoweiss, Common Dreams or Electronic Intifada can people like me become aware of the plight of the hunger strikers like Ayman and Samer and the others or the many Palestinianm men, women and children held in administrative detention by Israel without trial or even charge.
Compare this with the coverage of Prisoner X aka Ben Zygier/Alon/Allen since ABC's investigative report aired in Australia on Tuesday. Ben Zygier is, of corse, Jewish and also has dual Australian/Israeli citizenship and therfore is a real person. Even an article by Peter Beaumont in Wednseday's Guardian on the subject of Israel's treatment of prisoners fails to mention the dying Palestinian hunger strikers.link to guardian.co.uk

"and i want a pledge from any advocates for military action against a ‘nuclear’ iran that they are willing to shed their blood or the blood of their service-age relations in that military action."

"Aye, there's the rub." Within living, but fast dying off, memory the sons of wealth, priviledge and political power, risked life and limb leading their nations armies. Go a little further back in history and those armies would be led by the king himself. The risks borne by the powerful never prevented war but at least gave the rulers pause to consider whether there was another, less risky, option. Now, especially in the US, war is promoted by those who have not only never served in the armed forces but by those who have actively avoided doing so. (J.Kerry & J. McCain are exceptions)

A good deal of the B & D part of BDS needs to be aimed at people and companies outside of Israel. Large scale refusal to buy goods or services from companies which operate in the Occupied Territories (or even within Israel) will change the mindset and political orientation of said companies. If 1 in 100 US citizens decided to newly boycott Israeli goods and services that would be a drop of 3 million customers, and don't forget BDS is a worldwide movement. Folks with pension funds or students at universties can pressure administrators to divest fron unethical investments. Etc, etc ... It is ultimately more important to whittle away at the economic and political support from the US, EU, Canada etc than to go after Israel and its Jewish population directly.

BDS Israel is, like the anti-apartheid movement, an international citizens movement whose aim is to change the behaviour and attitude of the government and Jewish citizens of Israel and their supporters, state, group or individual, worldwide. I hope it grows and succeeds, in spite of the pain, because the alternative is much worse. The zionist project to create a Jewish state was begun at the height of European colonialism, when it seemed that European domination of non-European territories and populations would be permanent. By the time Israel actually became a state that domination was fading fast, and, inspite of the power of the US, EU etc is still declining. Israel is not an isolated Australia or New Zealand rather it resemles British India or French Algeria, now buried in the pages of history, whose passing was anything but peaceful. Israel cannot exist as it is, where it is without the support and protection of great powers whose influence is in rapid decline.

"But it is important to recall that the original Zionist idea was that a Jewish state was needed to provide a refuge from the scourge of anti-Semitism."

A logical but impractical idea since there was nowhere to create a Jewish state without gross interference with some other people's property, political, social and religious rights. Or, as my late (English) father-in-law once put it "Britain's decision to support a state for the Jews was a noble one, but Kent was not offered".

I fear that in the long term the creation of Israel may turn out to be the worst thing that ever happened to the Jews.

Marc I read the article yesterday in Ha'aretz and was also puzzled by the idea that the "reasonable & proportionate fear" felt by these farmers should be regarded in somewhat the same way as Floridians fear of hurricanes or Californians of earth quakes - justified sure but unavoidable. The settlers are simply a force of nature which cannot be constrained by the mere humans in the police & IDF. Of course had it been Palestinians harrassing Jews whole villages would have been locked down and every male between the ages of 10 & 70 arrested and questioned until somebody or bodies confessed.

The Palestians are the "chosen people". They ere chosen for eviction and oppression by the Zionists, the British, the UN the US etc and the signatures of provably real (human) beings are all over the documentation.

Phil I definately agree you need to interrogate the belief that the safety of Jews depends on the exixtence of a Jewish state. The fact is that the creation of the state of Israel caused a huge rise in anti-Semitism amongst Arabs and Muslims and its ongoing behaviour is causing an increasing loss of sympathy in the west.

Rights are such problematic things. So often the rights of one are irreconsilable with those of another, as is the case with Israel/Palestine.

"...there is in history no right of return." says Roger Cohen. So Palestinians driven from their homes and their decendants have no right to return to their former homes in Israel even though they know exactly where those homes are, and, in some cases, have documentary evidence of ownership.

The Likud charter states that “Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.”
The logic of this "unassailable right" is that Judaism arose in this land, members of this faith lived here and, sometimes, had political control here.

So the competing "rights" come down to these: Palestinian - "I have the right to return to a specified location" versus Jew-"I have the right to live in this land because I am a Jew, although I do not know exactly where, or even if, any of my ancestors lived in the land".
The former would seem to be the stronger claim with the exception of Palestinian Jews whos forebears were resident prior to the inception of the Zionist colonisation project.

The Zionist dream of a Jewish state required a large amount of gentile political support to get started. The state of Israel has been sustained by American power and European guilt, both of which are now fading. When that sustenance is withdrawn Israel will fail. I hope it does so relatively quietly but I fear the "Samson option" which would destroy the land for the foreseeable future, drasically affect the rest of the world and critically endanger diaspora Jews.

"Arab" like "European" is a collective noun covering the inhabitants of a number of different countries with similar, but distinct, cultures. Unlike "europeans" "arabs" have a common language - arabic - which, like other widespread languages, has distict regional variations. A number of "arab countries" also have minority populations with their own languages and cultures.

I just looked up the fate of Israeli settlements and settlers in Sinai in 1982. Compensation was paid to the settlers by Israel not the US, however the US did pay for the relocation of Israeli military installations. Needless to say relocating the military cost more than three times as much as relocating the settlers. What wonderful generous people you Americans are!link to washingtoninstitute.org

There appears to have been at least one privilage granted to Jews as a whole - the right to charge interest on mney lent. Of course only Jews who had money could take advantage of this privilage. I'm sure it also led to a number of episodes of persecution. Refusal to lend to the powwerful was not an option, but persecution of the lenders was if the borrower could not or did not want to pay up. We are all too aware these days how much money can be made in banking and wealth always attracts envy and hatred. Accusing individuals or communities of unspeakable crimes in order to confiscate their wealth is an old, old trick which was used against a number of targets including, but not restricted to, Jews. The best known case of persecution of a non-Jewish group in the name of money would be the accusation of heresy against the Knights Templar.

In the accompanying story, N. describes how after she and her partner stopped Sleima, she went to get a form to fill out and “suddenly I heard them fighting. I saw the Palestinian knock the soldier down and point a pistol at him.” She tells how she “had no time to think, I had to act in a split second or my partner would have been hurt,” and it’s only afterward, near the end of the story this time, that the detail about the gun being a toy is mentioned.

No hesitation, in a "split second" she found and took a safe shot. Such heroism!! or maybe terrorism.

Thanks Annie. I read the article and the comments. As usual there were some decent comments, including suggestions that the Judge's pronouncements would reflect badly on Jews as whole, and one pig ignorant one suggesting that Pakistanis are arabs along with the usual rubbish about there being nobody in Palestine before the Jews returned to claim it.
The sad fact is that many non-jewish non-zionists willget a negative impression of all Jews from comments like those of the Judge not realising that ther are other Jews, like yourself, Amira Hass and most of those on the Mondoweiss site who have very different opinions.

From a Zionist viewpoint changing borders and ethno-religous make up of the population of the area is no problem, providing that they have the power, and powerful support to do so. This article shows how the UN partition plan for Palestine was pre-empted before the actual partition link to representativepress.org .
If you want a look at Palestine before the Jewish take over go to link to lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com (thanks Mooser)

So can I take it that the substance of Bezion Netanyahu's take on the Spanish Inquisition is that it was primarily aimed at exterminating Jews? (No I am not going to read his book(s) etc, I don't have sufficient life expectancy).
The stated aim of the Holy Inquisition everywhere was to wipe out heresy among Christians, where heresy is defined as any thinking outside the box imposed by Holy Church. The unstated aim was the acquisition of wealth and power by the Church. The desire for the property of others has been a major (and sometimes the major) factor in many instances of persecusion and mass killing. Whilst Jews have been persecuted at times in Christian Europe there have been other times when being the wrong kind of Christian has been more dangerous than being Jewish.

Liberal Zionism is an oxymoron every bit as much as liberal Islamophobia, or liberal Judeophobia for that matter. Liberalism in general has a strong tendency to get wrecked on the rocks of self-interest or personal prejudice.

To my delighted surprise I learned this morning that NZ will vote in favour of Palestine. I had expected us to wimp out and abstain as usual. Also Australia has been forced to abstain rather than vote no by a revolt in PM Gillard's party.

The op-ed is an abomination but scroll down to the comments. I expected to find many comments suporting Gilad Sharon (it is the J'Post after all) but surprisingly many comment expressed horror at his ideas and those were the comments most likely to get a "like".

A lot stronger than any connection with up coming Israeli elections as far as I can see from regular reading of Haaretz and occaisional glances at the Jerusalem Post. It looks as if Netanyahu will probably win the elections with an increased number of seats for the new Halikud Beitenu party. On the other hand Palestine's upgrade to non-state member status at the UN terrifies them. I sincerly hope that Abbas will not back down this time.

I think you are probably right about Ramadan but when you think of how many pilgrims, of several faiths and sects, have been captured or killed in recent years you would have to assume that the merit gained from the pilgrimage makes it worth the risk.

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